The “not legal” part is the easiest to explain: the chief financial officer of the Brighter Choice Foundation in Albany was arrested on charges of embezzling some $200,000. Curiously, he was hired even though he was previously charged with embezzlement when he worked for a bank. Apparently, no one noticed.

But then comes all the “legal graft,” the kind that banks and corporations have perfected over the years.

When you see the public money–appropriated to educate children, to pay teachers, to reduce class size, to buy musical instruments–allocated to financiers, it is baffling.

Tax-breaks, loans, tax-exempt bonds, profits, limited risks, return on investment. To understand school reform today, it might help to be an accountant.

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It is scandalous, but is it no more than a manifestation, in a new domain, of capitalism relentlessly predicated on profit and growth, mostly unhindered by the general public, and lubricated by politicians?

We’ll know things might be changing when an ambitious prosecutor feels the political winds are right, and goes after the skimming and looting that charters are so well adapted for. Should others start wading through the muck that we all know is out there, it would have the potential to undermine a pillar of corporate education reform.

Given that no one has been indicted for the systemic frauds that brought about the 2008 financial crisis, perhaps that’s an overly optimistic thing to say, but you never know. It might be a local or state prosecutor who will crack it open, give us some ed reformer perp walks, and go a ways toward changing the terms of debate.

As the chief program officer for one of NYC’s largest youth-serving agencies in the late 1980s, I became familiar with the local politics and financially shady practices akin to what you are describing. If I was willing to grease the palm of or provide rewards for various housing board members, church representatives, public school administrators or ambitious, self-appointed power-mongers, access to almost anything could be gained. Ironically, they would complain that their children were missing opportunities when, in fact, they were holding hostage the space and access we needed and would use for recreation and education activities that were fully funded.

Speaking of scandals and monitoring, what should be done here, where San Jose over-reported their success?

From Los Angeles Times: “L.A. Unified’s college-prep push is based on false data. San Jose’s school district, which requires all students to pass the classes necessary to apply to California universities, initially reported strong results. But its success was overstated.”

State auditors found these and other examples of questionable payments:

• $127,981 for security equipment at several schools and a district warehouse that auditors said doesn’t work or is not fully functional.

• $95,882 for demolition work at South Shore School, billed at $65 per hour, plus a 40 percent markup. Auditors said that demolition workers usually earn $35 per hour. They also said the invoices did not specify how many workers were involved, or how many hours they worked.

• $87,000 for cleaning and renovating various schools. Auditors said this vendor charged the district an hourly rate of $30-$52 for each employee, plus a 25 percent markup. Yet the vendor told them he paid his workers $18 an hour.

• $2,500 for two security cameras at Cleveland High that were not installed at the school.

The scandals in public schools pale in comparison to the charter school scandals. The public sector is regulated; the private sector is deregulated. Joe, do you remember the collapse of the economy in 2008? Do you recall why that happened? Did it have anything to do with deregulation?
There is no public school scandal on the scale of the American Indian Charter School or the Oregon scandal ($20 million misappropriated), other than Mayor Bloomberg’s $600 million Citytime contract–which was unsupervised hi-tech.

When you write, “there is no public school scandal on the scale of the American Indian Charter School or the Oregon scandal,” except for the $600 million in NYC, have you done a systematic examination of scandals in public school districts? I have not, but wonder if you have.

I know friends in NYC who pointed out many signficant scandals pre Bloomberg, pre charter. Same is true in Chicago under both Mayor Daleys. But I have not done a systematic study? Have you, or have others?

It is infuriating to see public funds squandered, whether in the district or charter sectors.

Scandal is only when you get caught after all the cover ups fail. This is not limited to charter schools. This is just a way of doing business. IL had no less than 3 governors go to prison because their stealing went beyond what the other politicians could tolerate. What ever happened to checks and balances? Obviously, it does not work at the Federal level either. I tried to teach integrity for 38 years and it was clear the students thought that there was an easier way.